The Story of Mister Scallofrax
by JunoInferno
Summary: When you're a Time Baby, your toys sometimes have a life before you that stretches back centuries. This is the story of one. Part of the Regarding Mrs Smith ficverse.


Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. Okay, Regarding Mrs Smith ficverse fans, put this in the 2012 series. Sort of stuck on that other story. Anyway, there is a recurring character in this ficverse: Mister Scallofrax. This is about him. Enough said, I think. Thank you and happy reading!

* * *

It was a typical day.

A typical day for a Time Baby, anyway. A little boring even. Zara had passed the morning at nursery school and then her parents had come to collect her. They had Chinese for lunch and then she had gone for a nap in the TARDIS. It was still just parked in the house. Mummy was busy setting up things for the baby and Daddy had said something with a lot of syllables. Zara woke up in her bed next to Pooh Bear and Mister Scallofrax remembering that she had a question to ask her father.

Zara bounded up to her father in the console room.

"Hello there, Zara!," said the Doctor. "I didn't ask about school, did I? How was school?"

"Good!," said Zara. "We had sharing!"

"Sharing?," asked the Doctor. "Sorry, is that what they do in human nursery schools? In my day, they at least let you look at a particle collider."

"Tomorrow is my turn!" She held up Mister Scallofrax. He sort of seemed to be an emu with eight beady eyes, a beak like a toucan and purple feathers. "I'm going to take Mister Scallofrax!"

The Doctor frowned. "Oh, Zara, I don't know about that."

"Mummy said I could."

"Of course she did," muttered the Doctor.

"I have a question."

"Oh?"

"Where did Mister Scallofrax come from?"

The Doctor's hearts dropped. "Sorry?"

"I want to tell a story about him. Where did he come from?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry, Zara. You can't take Mister Scallofrax."

"But, Mummy said-"

"Mummy never should have said," the Doctor said gruffly.

Zara patted the toy's feathers. "I just want to-"

"No, Zara!"

The Doctor looked back at the console, flooded by emotions. Memories of where Mister Scallofrax had come from and who he had belonged to. He realized Zara's hand was reaching over his. She was trying to investigate what was wrong with him. He quickly snapped his hand away and closed his mind shut.

"Daddy..." said Zara. She was growing upset. "Daddy, please."

"Promise me you won't look," said the Doctor.

The TARDIS hummed in disapproval.

"Zara, you've got to control your own mind and you can't go imposing yourself on other people's thoughts!"

Zara's lip quivered as she turned and ran into the TARDIS corridor.

* * *

Donna was inspecting the new nursery the TARDIS had designed for the baby. This time she had chosen coral branches with green bedding and furniture. The cot looked impossibly old, snug with a little mobile of stars. Suddenly, the baby started kicking and punching inside her as the TARDIS hummed.

"What's the matter, you?," Donna asked her stomach pointedly.

As she finished, Zara came running in the room clutching Mister Scallofrax and tears streaming down her face. She was quickly followed by Chloe, also fussing.

"Girls, what's the matter?," asked Donna. She knelt to the floor and pulled them both into a hug. "What's happened? Why all the tears?"

"Daddy," sobbed Zara.

"Daddy," Chloe concurred.

"Come on," said Donna. She pulled herself up and took the girls by the hand.

She led them back to the console room where the Doctor stood hunched over the console. There was something wrong with him and it took Donna a second to put her finger on it.

"You shut yourself off," said Donna.

"I'm busy," the Doctor muttered.

"Well, stop!," said Donna. "You can't do that. You can't break a psychic link. It's upsetting them."

The Doctor stared at the controls. "Zara needs to not invade other people's thoughts."

"So, this is what? Punishment? Stop it this instant! They're upset and you do yourself no good when you're like this! Please, even the baby feels it."

The Doctor took a breath and closed his eyes. He released his control, letting his psychic link with the children resume at a low hum. The girls seemed to settle and Donna marched over and slapped him.

She hadn't done that in a while.

"Don't you dare do that to my children," said Donna.

"I wasn't trying to hurt them," said the Doctor.

"Then what were you doing?," asked Donna.

"Zara was trying to find out where Mister Scallofrax came from," said the Doctor, looking away.

"Oh," said Donna, getting her first glimmer of understanding. She looked back to the girls. "Then I suppose we should talk."

"There's nothing to talk about, Donna," said the Doctor.

"I'd say there's plenty to talk about," said Donna.

"They don't need to know."

"Doctor," said Donna, "you had to know someday they would want to know."

"She hasn't asked that! She's asked where a toy came from!"

"Her favorite toy," said Donna. "Her favorite because her father who loves her gave it to her. Shouldn't she know why? Shouldn't she know she had a sister?"

"A sister?," Zara piped in.

"No," said the Doctor.

Donna turned to Zara. "A long time ago, before Mummy and Daddy ever met-"

"Donna, don't-"

She looked back at the Doctor with an icy glare. "Either you tell her or I will. This hiding does none of us any good."

The Doctor looked over at Zara. Her eyes were full of confusion and desperation. He sighed and walked over by her, sitting himself on the console room floor between Zara and Chloe. Donna came and knelt beside them.

"Mummy's right," said the Doctor. "It was a long time ago, before we ever met, before I even left Gallifrey. I was married."

Zara looked at Donna.

"It's alright, love, I know all about it," said Donna.

"She was a brilliant woman," said the Doctor. "And we had brilliant children."

* * *

It was a typical day in the Citadel. Time Lords lorded over things and the Gallifreyans went about their work, keeping things going so Time Lords could keep lording. The Doctor walked the street, a smile on his face because this wasn't a typical day for him. In fact, it was rather special.

The Doctor was walking down the high street, off from the Grand Observatory, when he was approached by the Master.

"So," said the Master, "we meet again."

"Hello, Master!," said the Doctor. "Word has it you got into a spot of trouble with the High Council!"

The Master frowned. "What are you so chipper for?"

"Haven't you heard? I thought everyone had." The Doctor turned to examine one of the Gallifreyan shop windows.

The Master's face contorted in disgust. "Oh, you mean your offspring."

"Daughter," said the Doctor.

"I don't understand how you can bear to produce offspring in such a manner."

"Oh, see, that's the clever part. The Oracle does all the heavy lifting. I do the easy work."

The Master shook his head again. "As I said, I find the whole process disgusting."

"You ought to try it," said the Doctor. "Might loosen you up."

"You're in the minority on the subject, of course."

"As I am often reminded."

The Master shook his head. "What are we looking at?"

"A toy shop."

The Master scoffed. "Gallifreyan toy shop. No Time Lord children would play with these. Are those blocks made of wood?"

"I think I ought to get one of those! Look at that plush model of a scallofrax!"

"Get one for what?"

"The baby. I bet she'd like it."

The Master shook his head. "You have now gone mad."

"As I have been informed." He looked at the Master. "The naming ceremony is this evening at the house. I'll expect to see you there."

* * *

The Doctor walked back into the nursery of his house as the twin suns were setting. The Gallifreyan nurse was rocking the cot.

"That'll be enough, thank you, Anu," said the Doctor.

The nurse nodded and left. The Doctor walked over to the cot and looked at the baby girl. She batted happily at the stars that hung from it.

"I've brought you something," said the Doctor. He reached into the little sack he had gotten from the shop and pulled out the toy. "See? It's a scallofrax. I'll take you out to see a real one when you get a bit older."

She cooed happily batting at the feathers on the toy. The Doctor lifted her out of the cot.

"Oh, you are lucky, Mayantha," said the Doctor. "By the way, that's what you're naming you. You've got a whole great big universe out there."

The Doctor remembered the day that Mayantha had died. The first time the Daleks had attacked Gallifrey itself. They were fought off, but not without losses. The Doctor had landed the TARDIS immediately after he got the message. He hurried across the Citadel and to the temple, where he found the Oracle, hunched over Mayantha. She was covered in blood, cuts all along her face.

He remembered how much pain she was in. He remembered how she had begged him for help and how he had pleaded with her to regenerate, not understanding why she couldn't. He remembered the moment when she had finally let go.

It was after her funeral pyre that the Doctor made the pilgrimage back to Mayantha's rooms at the temple, trying to soak in the last bits of her. He noticed that the scallofrax still sat on her bedside table and he put it in his coat pocket.

The Doctor forgot all about it until after regenerating into his ninth self. As he stood in the TARDIS wardrobe, looking at his new short hair and big ears, wondering why he was alive, he realized that the toy was still in his coat pocket. After he found new clothes, he took the toy and stuffed it into a box with other things from home that he now wished he never had taken because they reminded him of a place he would never go again.

It wasn't until years later that he dared to take it out again as his tenth self. Donna came upon him and insisted that the toy not be stuffed away again. She placed it on her bedside table. It was strange to have it out again, but it seemed right somehow.

Then the metacrisis. After the return to Earth and the start of his life as John Smith, the Doctor had noticed the toy was missing from the table, but didn't know why.

"Blimey!," said Martha, hanging down from the cellar door. "Do you think I could come in the door?"

The Doctor held Zara in his arms as Martha jumped to the floor. "It took longer to get Donna out than I thought." Martha was suddenly up next to him, taking Zara. "Uh, what are you doing?"

Martha shook her head. "Looking at the baby!"

"You could see her from there!"

Martha sighed and turned her attention to the little girl. "Hi, Zara! It's been weeks since I saw you! You've gotten so big! Do you remember Auntie Martha?"

"Auntie Martha?," asked the Doctor.

"Yes," said Martha, "Auntie Martha."

Zara cooed. She was clearly happy to be held and fussed over by her Auntie Martha, regardless of whether her father understood what was going on.

"Right," said the Doctor, "we should get on with the medical exam."

They took Zara inside the TARDIS to the clinic where they did all the medical work they needed. Martha continued to confuse the Doctor by speaking baby talk to Zara and then she took out her mobile.

"What are you doing now?," asked the Doctor.

"Mum wanted pictures."

The Doctor frowned. "Why did your mum want pictures?"

"She helped deliver her. She wanted to know what she looked like now."

"Why?"

Martha sighed. "Okay, since Donna's incapacitated, I'm going to fill you in. People like babies. We like to look at pictures of them and fuss over them. Especially if they're cute, otherwise we're just faking it."

"Oh," said the Doctor.

Martha picked Zara back up out of the medical cot. "Luckily, you're cute! And so well-behaved! When my nephew was a baby, he was a holy terror. I sat with him while Leo and his girlfriend went to the movies once and I was halfway to a foundling hospital with him before I turned the pram around."

The Doctor frowned. "Do they still have foundling hospitals?"

"I didn't really care at the time," said Martha. She started walking out the door of the clinic and instead of the corridor, they were in some sort of nursery. "Doctor! Did you do this?"

"No," the Doctor said in a low voice, "this is all the TARDIS' doing."

Martha looked at the mural over the cot. "Is that Gallifrey? That's how you described it," she said edging closer.

"Yes," said the Doctor.

"Look, Zara, you have toys!," exclaimed Martha. She plucked the scallofrax out of the cot. "Some sort of, I don't know, bird?"

Zara reached out for the toy. The Doctor quickly took it from Martha. Zara fussed.

Martha scowled at the Doctor. "I think you're a little old to be not sharing, Doctor."

"It's not mine. It belongs to someone else."

Martha let that hang in the air a minute. "Who does it belong to, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked down. "It doesn't matter. She's gone now."

Martha nodded, guessing at who the toy's owner might have been. After Messaline, seeing the way he had been distraught about Jenny, Donna had told Martha about the Doctor's confession that he had been a father. "I think Zara might like it. Toys ought to be played with."

The Doctor looked at Zara and held out the scallofrax for her. She smiled and took it. The glee in her eyes was the same as Mayantha's had been, it forced him to think all the way back to that first day, how much joy the creature had given her and in return, how much joy Mayantha had given him.

* * *

The Doctor looked up at the conclusion of the story. Donna's eyes were brimming with tears.

"Mummy?," asked Chloe.

Donna shook her head. "It's okay. Mummy's just a bit sad, but it's a good sort of sad."

The Doctor tried to think of what to say next, but before he could he found Zara's arms around him.

"I'm sorry Mister Scallofrax made you sad, Daddy."

"No," said the Doctor, hugging her back, "you see he makes me happy. Because he makes you happy and I get to remember Mayantha when she was happy."

Donna let out a huge sob that made the Doctor and the girls eye her quizzically.

"It's the hormones!," said Donna. "I can't control it. God, I saw an advert with a duckling and I cried for ten minutes. It wasn't even doing anything, it just walked around a bit."

"Why don't we go out for a bit?," asked the Doctor. "The park? We'll get a hamper."

"Can we take Esther?," asked Zara.

"Of course we'll take Esther," said the Doctor. "Do you think she'll tolerate sitting at home while we have a picnic at the park? We would never hear the end of it."

"Go get your coats and your wellies," said Donna.

The girls scampered off. The Doctor turned to Donna.

"You slapped me. I forgot how much that hurt."

"I haven't had to," said Donna. "Don't shut yourself off again, spaceman. You're less of yourself when you do and that makes us all less."

The Doctor nodded.

"I know that was hard for you. It's not easy for you to remember."

"No," said the Doctor, "sometimes I like to remember."

"So, you and the Master, you just ran into each other on the high street?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "It wasn't all fighting across the stars, Donna. Sometimes you just ran into people on the high street."

"I suppose," said Donna.

The Doctor looked at her in disbelief. "What do you mean you suppose? I was the one who was there, I'm saying how it was."

"Did he come to the naming ceremony?"

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, yeah. Ate almost half the nibbles himself. Angered the Oracle to no end."

"Did they not get on?"

"Not exactly."

Donna smiled. The girls had entered with their coats. Zara already had Esther on her lead.

"Well done," said Donna.

"Alright, girls, just get the pushchair and we're off!," the Doctor announced picking his coat up off the coral strut.

"Allons-y!," said Zara.

The Doctor smiled. "Allons-y!"


End file.
